1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel tank structure provided for storing a liquid fuel of gasoline or the like in an automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
A vehicle is installed with a fuel tank for storing and supplying a gasoline or the like as a fuel. However, a leakage of the fuel having a high volatility and flammability is extremely dangerous for an operation of scrapping a used vehicle. Therefore, it is needful to drain out a total amount of the fuel from the fuel tank prior to the scrapping operation. Generally, in order to drain out the fuel from the fuel tank, a hole is formed at a bottom surface. However, in recent years, since a chamber module formation including a fuel pump or the like is developed and an inner structure of the fuel tank is complicated, in order to firmly drain out the total amount of the fuel, a scrapping efficiency is liable to be lowered and also an operational environment is liable to be deteriorated and a problem remains also in view of safety. Hence, there has been proposed a processing facility for draining out a fuel in scrapping such a used vehicle (refer to, for example, JP-A-10-230822, shown below).
A simple explanation will be given of Patent Reference 1, described above, in reference to FIG. 4. A fuel receiving chamber 17 is moved up and down by a base seat 13. When the fuel receiving chamber 17 is moved up, the fuel receiving chamber is brought into a close contact with a fuel tank 20 by a sealer 19. Further, a spearhead-shaped penetrating device 18 is moved up and down by a piston 15. When the device 18 is moved up, the device 18 penetrates the fuel tank 20 to open a hole and a remaining fuel inside of the fuel tank 20 is drained out to the fuel receiving chamber 17. The drained-out fuel is recovered from a draining port 11 of the fuel receiving chamber 17 to a salvage tank 27 via a pipe 24 and a valve 22.
When a fuel level of the recover tank 27 reaches a predetermined level, the valve 22 is closed by a level meter 23. Further, a nitrogen gas is supplied from a nitrogen gas bomb 14 to the fuel tank 20 via a valve and a colder 25 and supplied to the fuel receiving chamber 17 via the pipe 24 and the valve 22 to thereby purge by the nitrogen gas. A gas concentration measuring instrument 16 measures a gas concentration at an inside of the fuel tank 20 in order to advance (or transfer) to a next station after recognizing that a gas of the fuel is sufficiently reduced.
By such a processing facility of the used vehicle (old vehicle), the fuel can efficiently and safely be drained out at inside of an independent (or separate) building facility of a fireproof structure or the like. However, such a processing facility needs a large-scaled facility and requires an enormous expense, further, in order to bore a fuel draining hole at an optimum position of the fuel tank 20 (a position of installing a chamber module including a fuel pump or the like which is easy to store a remaining fuel or the like) in correspondence with various regulations for fuel tanks, a position of the piston 15 above the base seat 13 needs to incessantly control and still the operational efficiency cannot be regarded to be sufficient.